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Review – The Wii U has a killer app in the fun, laid back strategy of ‘Pikmin 3′

According to the Wii U system calendar, Pikmin 3 is my most-played game on the console to date.

Granted, that’s not saying too much. The Wii U has been out for less than a year, and its game library has been lacking, to say the very least, for the past several months. Still, Pikmin 3 isn’t just a game I’ve spent a lot of time with — it’s a game I’ve enjoyed just about every second with.

Pikmin’s unique aesthetic takes you into small places and makes them feel huge. The plant-like Pikmin are about the size of ants, and you’re not much bigger. As such, a puddle can feel like a lake, a rock can feel like a mountain, and an outdated cellphone? That thing is massive even compared to your spaceship.

It presents a world both unique and incredibly charming, and while the Wii U isn’t exactly the most powerful piece of hardware on the planet, it sure does render some beautiful nature.

If you played Pikmin 1 or 2 on the GameCube, the core mechanics of Pikmin 3 won’t be revolutionary to you. It’s been nearly a decade since Pikmin 2 first launched, however, so there’s a good chance this will be a refreshing return for you. Truth be told, in all these years there hasn’t really been anything else quite like Pikmin on any game platform.

It plays a little like a real-time strategy game, though with a more laid back pace than most. You control a group of up to 100 Pikmin and command them to perform different tasks, such as move big objects or attack large monsters. Different Pikmin types have different strengths and weaknesses — for example, red Pikmin are good fighters and can resist fire, while yellow Pikmin can handle electricity. Carrying monsters back to the Pikmin’s home as a food source produces yet more Pikmin, causing your population of workers to grow and grow, which is good, because some Pikmin aren’t going to survive.

Micromanaging each kind of Pikmin and using them in different ways involves a lot of thinking as well as a little puzzle solving. This is especially true with two Pikmin types new to Pikmin 3: Rock Pikmin and Winged Pikmin. Both can be incredibly useful for the situations you’ll find yourself in, and they lead to a bit more variety in how you will traverse the landscape.

You can explore the world at a pretty leisurely pace, but don’t get too complacent. All of your actions have a time limit, as you can only explore during the day. Whatever you want to do each day, you had better do it before the sun sets, so it’s best to plan ahead at least a little.

While the first Pikmin game was a bit notorious for its strict time limit that made me personally feel rushed as I played, Pikmin 3′s only requirement from day to day is juice. The primary item you’ll be searching for and collecting during the game is fruit, and as you bring various fruits back to your ship you create juice rations. If you run out of juice it’s … well, I assume it’s game over, but the thing is, I never even came close to running out. I didn’t exactly rush through the story mode, yet I still had more than enough food to ensure I never felt like I was running out of time.

The only downside to this fruit-centric story mode? Collecting various fruits isn’t nearly as novel or exciting as the “treasures” you would collect in the first two games. In those, it was always funny to collect things like old bottlecaps and Game & Watch toys and see them valued so highly. You lose a bit of that charm here, but the core source of entertainment remains.

Now, I’m going to tell you something that may sound a little weird: Don’t use the Wii U’s signature controller to control Pikmin 3.

I love the GamePad for a lot of reasons, and keep hoping it gets more cool, clever uses. And rest assured, it’s a vital element of your strategy in Pikmin 3. But in terms of actually moving around and ordering Pikmin around, the Wii Remote and Nunchuck combination is by far the way to go. Giving commands and tossing Pikmin by pointing the Wii Remote at the TV feels much quicker and more accurate — moreso than it has ever felt before. Heck, it almost makes me wonder how we put up with the GameCube controls for two full games. This way is just better. It can be a bit of a pain to switch between the GamePad (for its map and other controls) and the Wii Remote, though. I tended to alternate between keeping it in my lap and on a stand on my coffee table. Still, I found it a worthwhile sacrifice for the better controls. If you really want to play on the GamePad exclusively, though (meaning, with the TV off and the entirety of the action taking place on the smaller screen), that’s a welcome option.

Rather than playing as Captain Olimar, like in the first two games, you play as three new protagonists. The exciting thing about is that you can switch between all three of them at will (provided they’re available), and often have to make them work together to accomplish some of the game’s trickier tasks.

While each character plays the same as the others (they do not have any unique abilities), and they all play almost exactly like Olimar did in the old games, the hook is that you can use the GamePad to direct another character or two to different areas of the map, allowing you to multitask like never before. By dragging your finger or stylus across the GamePad screen, you can move around the map and guide a character (along with his or her own squad of Pikmin, if you’d like) to exactly where you want them to go. In this way, Pikmin 3 feels a bit more like a real-time strategy game than its predecessors, though the pace is still very much its own. Want to send some water Pikmin to a lake area while a large group of red Pikmin head toward a large monster in the opposite direction? It’s easy to accomplish both things at once, and that freedom feels great.

There are occasional issues with the Pikmin themselves that are less than ideal. Sometimes they get stuck or inexplicably left behind, and that sucks. But you’ll probably have hundreds where they came from, so ultimately it’s not worth crying too much about, even though Nintendo sure knows how to make individual Pikmin deaths feel incredibly sad.

While the story mode alone is a great, lengthy adventure that’s worth the price of admission, there are a couple other modes available that can extend your play time, especially if you have a friend. First, there are several sets of missions with different objectives (finding treasure, beating monsters or beating bosses) that you can play multiple times for higher scores, which is faster-paced than the story mode and more entertaining than I expected it to be. These missions can be played both alone and with a friend, and they’ll keep you busy for awhile.

There is also Bingo Battle, which is a clever multiplayer mode in which you and a friend are each given a Bingo card with various items or monsters on it. The goal is to get “Bingo” by collecting what you need before the other player does. It’s a really clever use of the game’s mechanics and can be a lot of fun.

Whether you’re new to the series or have been craving a sequel for almost a decade, Pikmin 3 is well worth paying. It’s a charming, addictive game that makes a good case for the Wii U hardware (even if the GamePad itself isn’t always front and center), and it’s my favorite game to hit the system thus far. If you own a Wii U, I think you should play Pikmin 3.

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